


As a Team

by wickedlupin



Category: Tales of Link (Video Game)
Genre: ToLFarewellChallenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 10:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13611501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedlupin/pseuds/wickedlupin
Summary: A tribute to my Tales of Link team, after all I've been through with them.





	As a Team

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my TOLink Farewell Challenge on tumblr! I'm devastated to see the game go, but I'm overwhelmingly grateful for all I've been able to experience through and thanks to Tales of Link. I worked hard to build this team, and I'll never forget them!!

 

* * *

 

The fire popped and crackled, the only sound filling the campsite as Leon kept watch over his companions. Asch was up with him, and the firelight glinted off his blade as he polished it on the other side of the flame.

Behind Asch, Leon saw Sophie turn over in her sleep, the hood of her rain jacket slipping down over her eyes. Leon had surprised himself with how fond he had become of the girl. They had become partners in battle, first and foremost—their skills complimented each other—and a sort of bond had formed between them because of it. As Leon looked around at his strangely-clad companions, he supposed he had become fond of all of them, in a way.

Jade was infuriating, with his constant sarcasm. Mikleo always looked so stupid, carrying that flute around with him everywhere, but even worse was Tear, wearing a damn swimsuit into battle. Yuri and Asch were always trying to branch off on their own, and seeing as Leon refused to fully trust anyone, he couldn’t allow that. As fond as he was of Sophie, she asked too many questions, and he often butted heads with Edna. She teased him about his age, or his size, while she was even smaller than him, in her ridiculous frilly dress and cat ears—but all of that aside, Leon would die before seeing any of them hurt. And that scared him, a little.

Asch finished polishing his blade and returned it to its sheath. “Our shift is almost over,” he said in a low tone. Leon nodded his agreement and stretched, his joints aching from having sat in the same position for so long.

Asch sat up straighter, fixing his yukata where it had sagged and retying it. After a long moment, he looked at Leon. “What will you do when this is all over?”

Leon frowned. “Well, I am a knight. So I’ll report to the castle.”

Asch stared into the flames between them. “I guess we’ll all be parting ways.”

“That’s just how it is.” Leon stood up, not wishing to dwell on the subject. “You wake Yuri, and I’ll wake Tear.”

 

* * *

 

Asch moved into his usual fighting stance, surrounded by his team, as Leon led them all into battle once again. Two monsters stood as a shield in front of the boss, poising to attack. Asch looked around at his teammates—the energy among them was powerful, and infectious. Just fighting with them gave him the feeling that they could never lose. He smirked, and tightened his grip on his sword as the monsters came at them.

Jade was the first to strike. His red and black cloak flowed out behind him with a flurry of rose petals as he cast his arte, successfully delaying the enemy’s attack and giving the others a chance to do some damage. Tear, Mikleo, and Sophie stepped up next, attacking all in a row, with Sophie at the end, effectively defeating the first monster.

The second monster lunged forward toward Edna, but she deflected the bulk of the hit with her pink umbrella, and only took a small amount of damage. At this point, Asch finally took his turn.

“Sonic Blast!”

His attack stunned the enemy momentarily, and Asch caught the sight of Yuri’s ponytail whipping by as he finished it off. Now only the boss was left. Thunder clapped overhead, and the first drops of rain fell down from the clouds. One drop fell square in the middle of Asch’s head. It was a large drop, and promised more to come. They had better end this quickly and seek shelter.

Taking his mind off the rain, Asch noticed Leon and Sophie preparing their joint artes in his peripheral. The boss was a big one, but it was nothing their team couldn’t take. Edna cast a healing arte over the team, repairing the damage taken from the last two monsters, while Yuri and Jade used their own artes to delay the enemy once more. If they planned this just right, they could take out the boss without it getting in a single hit.

The rain began to pour. Asch’s tabard grew heavier as it absorbed the water, and his bangs fell down into his face. He tried to ignore it, keeping his focus on the battle, and on Leon and Sophie, as he waited for his cue.

At last, it was time. Sophie and Leon cast their artes in tandem to link all of their teammates together, and increase their attack power. Their new strength pulsing through their veins, everyone gave their all, one by one, to take as many hit points as possible in their streamline of attacks. Asch was the last to attack, meant to give the final blow—

“Break and scatter!” he shouted, thrusting his sword once into the air, and then firmly into the ground, “Rending Saber!”

The attack shook the enemy to its core, and it fell to the ground, vanquished. Asch smirked. “How pathetic…”

He looked back at his team, drenched by the rain. Well, at least most of them were. Sophie and Edna were both prepared with umbrellas, and Tear, in her swimsuit, hardly looked bothered by the wet. But the rest of them, in their knight’s garb, orchestra attire, vampire costume... looked simply absurd. Leon, whose wardrobe was the most sensible out of the lot of them, but who was drenched all the same, looked less like a victorious leader and more like a wet cat.

“You all look ridiculous,” he told them all.

“Like you’re one to talk, switching between your yukata and that stupid tabard every other day,” Edna said dryly, both in tone and in the fact that her umbrella protected her perfectly from the rain. She walked past Asch. “Let’s just get to an inn before Tear catches a cold.”

 

* * *

 

After all they had been through together in the last year, the party’s journey was finally coming to a close. The eight of them walked as far as was logical together, before they had to start branching off onto their own paths. Just behind Leon, Asch and Tear were arguing.

“You can come back to Oldore—“

“No I can’t, Tear, we’ve been over that.”

“Where will you go, then?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Their conversation was drowned out by Mikeo’s raised voice in response to some taunting of Edna’s. “Would you let it go, already? It’s just a flute!”

“I like hearing Mikleo play the flute,” Sophie interjected, in her quiet, monotone voice, “It makes me think of all the times I was with my friends.”

The bouts of arguing ceased, and everyone looked at each other.

Yuri was the one to break the silence. “This is really it, huh?”

“We’ve traveled together for so long, I can’t believe we’re really parting ways,” Mikleo added.

Edna smirked. “Here reemerges Touchy-Feeleo.”

Mikleo crossed his arms. “Would you knock it off!”

Jade chuckled from his place beside Yuri. “I, myself, will not regret ending our travels in favor of my own bed.”

“Oh, please. You’ll miss us, Colonel,” Edna prodded.

Jade offered up a surprisingly gentle smile. “Well, perhaps I will.”

Leon felt a tug on his cape, and he looked to his right to find Sophie looking up at him, the hood sliding back off of her head.

“What is it, Sophie?”

“I’ll miss you.”

Leon spluttered, caught off guard by the emotion shown to him, and by the emotion he felt in response. “I’ll… miss you too.”

“Will you miss the others, too?”

Leon turned his back to the entire party, unable to face any of them as a blush crept up his neck. “Sure.”

Sophie smiled at the rest of the group. “This can’t be goodbye forever. We’ll all see each other again, right?”

“Right,” Yuri answered. Most everyone nodded their agreement, and Tear doted over how cute Sophie was. Yuri clapped Asch on the back until he nodded as well.

Leon was still facing away from everyone, when Yuri surprised him but popping up right beside him. “Thanks for being our fearless leader, Sir Leon.”

Leon’s blush only intensified. “Oh, shut up.”

A chorus and laughter and repeated ‘thank yous’ came from behind Leon, and he finally turned around. “We all fought hard, okay? We made a good team. And now our run is over.”

“For now,” Asch threw in, “Until something else shows up to threaten us.”

The bickering among the party resumed, and continued until each of them took their own paths to return home, until they would meet again in another time, or another universe, another game.


End file.
